1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to parcel packaging, and more particularly, to a device and method for protecting plants during transport.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several designs for plant transport containers have been designed in the past. None of them, however, includes an inner tray that secures multiple plants relative to the tray with a beam that acts to secure soil into the pots and secures the pots to the tray that is further secured inside a bottom edge of an outer box where the tray is immobile inside the out box when the box is closed.
Applicant believes that the closest reference corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,301 issued to Jones. However, it differs from the present invention because Jones does not teach or suggest that a removable beam is used to hold the plants into a tray where that beam is held into the tray when the tray is placed and sealed into a box.
Currently many growers will use special transport systems for local or regional delivery of potted plants. For example, custom racks, crates or containers are utilized along with specialized moving equipment to ship plants. Generally, the movers in this type of system are careful to not invert the plants and pay special care to avoid injuring the delicate living and growing cargo.
Sometimes packages shipped by government or private package delivery services are disturbed, inverted, shaken and banged about. In the past, this has made it impossible to ship by these methods. A plant was unlikely to survive without careful and attentive treatment as provided by a dedicated plant delivery service.
With the present design it has now become feasible to transport live plants in bulk by common carrier. A low cost and robust plant transportation means that can also be used for display purposes upon arrival at its destination is now presented.
Other known products, methods and patents describing related subject matter provide for a number of more or less complicated features that fail to solve the problem in reliable, efficient and economical fashion. None of these things or patents suggest the novel features of the present invention.